Parenting Is a Great Art - Family & Children's Meditation Camp
Children camps at Oshodham are combined with the meditation camp for parents, thus facilitating the whole family to dive into the depths of love, laughter & silence. This family meditation retreat creates a supportive environment where parenting, mindfulness, and child development meet - allowing parents to practice meditation while children explore age-appropriate camps guided by the same heartfelt principles.
Osho says, “To be a parent is a great art. To give birth to children is nothing -- any animal can do it; it is a natural, biological, instinctive process. To give birth to a child is nothing great, it is nothing special; it is very ordinary. But to be a parent is something extraordinary; very few people are really capable of being parents. And the criterion is that the real parents will give freedom. They will not impose themselves upon the child, they will not encroach upon his space. From the very beginning their effort will be to help the child to be himself or to be herself. They are to support, they are to strengthen, they are to nourish, but not to impose their ideas, not to give the shoulds and should-nots. They are not to create slaves.”
Philosophy and Approach
Rooted in these insights, Oshodham’s parent-child retreat emphasizes respectful parenting and mindful discipline rather than rigid rules. Parents and children learn together - parents deepening their meditation practice while children develop confidence, curiosity, and emotional intelligence in the children camps.
“This should be the principle: children should be helped to listen to their bodies, to listen to their own needs. The basic thing for parents is to guard the children from falling into a ditch. The function of their discipline is negative. Remember the word "negative"... no positive programming but only a negative guarding - because children are children, and they can get into something which will harm them, cripple them. Then too don't order them not to go, but explain to them. Don't make it a point of obedience; still let them choose. You simply explain the whole situation.
Children are very receptive, and if you are respectful towards them they are ready to listen, ready to understand; then leave them with their understanding. And it is a question only of a few years in the beginning; soon they will be getting settled in their intelligence, and your guarding will not be needed at all. Soon they will be able to move on their own.”
Osho also explains that children should be taught to keep the balance between intelligence and meditation. Both these qualities are to be nurtured. Osho says, "Give your children meditation as well as thinking. Thinking will help them to be successful in the world, and meditation will help them towards success in the divine. Give them thought to sharpen their intellects, give them meditation to nurture the sacred in their hearts. The most important phenomenon in the world happens where sacredness of the heart meets the activeness of the intellect. In that meeting, activity and inactivity balance each other, the day and the night both cease to be, and you start catching glimpses of that which lies beyond both life and death."
What the Retreat Offers
- Combined meditation camp for parents and children camps
- A supportive environment where parenting, mindfulness, and child development meet
- Children guided by the same heartfelt principles as the parents' practice
- Emphasis on respectful parenting and mindful discipline
At Oshodham, these teachings inform the children camps and meditation camp for parents, offering a gentle, respectful approach to raising free, mindful children while supporting parents on their own path of inner growth.